Con awarded two major ARC research grants

1 November 2016

We are very thrilled to announce two major research grants that have been awarded to Con researchers. It is the first time we have received Australian Research Council (ARC) funding for a performance-based project.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Neal Peres Da Costa on his Discovery Project funding to investigate the nature of 19th-century piano playing and offer new and alternative ways of interpreting this music. Current approaches to playing 19th-century piano music differ from evidence of historical practices. The project will address this with ideas on 19th-century piano practice, the relationship between music notation and performance, increased interpretive choices, and a method for historically informed performance. Published multi-modal outputs will serve as industry models fostering diversity in performing styles.The project aims to bring social and psychological health benefits, increase wellbeing in our culture and society, and boost the music economy.

Neil will be producing three CD recordings of solo piano music spanning the 19th-century using a combination of historical recording emulation and cyclical research process to inform him of the historically appropriate style for various composers (Brahms, Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, Schubert and Beethoven, and some lesser-known composers). Neil will also be producing a monograph with Professor Clive Brown that will document the findings of this project and provide thoughts on new ways of approaching the study of historically informed performance (HIP). The grant also enables Neil to organise two international conferences bringing together experts and students in this field, one in Hannover (Germany) in 2017 and one at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2019.

Congratulations also to Dr Clint Bracknell and Professor Linda Barwick who have received significant funding for an Indigenous Discovery Project aiming to explore how song can preserve vanishing Indigenous languages. Song and language are integral to the wellbeing and knowledge of Indigenous peoples, and the loss of Indigenous languages is a national and global crisis. Focusing on the endangered Nyungar language of the south-west of Western Australia, this project will develop a model to recirculate and perform archival songs in online and physical spaces, engaging the community while developing resources for future use. The outcomes of this project are expected to inform global efforts to sustain intangible cultural heritage and contribute to the Australian reconciliation agenda.